I'm pretty sure what he means is that it's completely pathetic that our GM neglected the blueline in the offseason (yet again) so now with 2 players injured we'll be fielding a lineup with Erskine, Sloan, Fahey (a 29 yr old career minor leaguer) and two kids who each have less than 60 NHL games under their belts). The fans could see this coming a mile away... now only 2 weeks into the season it's a reality...

Seriously. Are people really flipping out because the Caps lost two of their top defenseman and were forced to replace them with lesser players. Look what happened in Pittsburgh the past week. They lost a few of their top defensemen and were forced to call up and play a few players who did not belong in the NHL.

It is one regular season game. The same regular season that most of everyone on this blog has been calling useless all summer. Then what is the point of flipping out because of one regular season game?

I for one have ZERO confidence that McPhee is going magically pull a top D-man out of his rear at the trade deadline. It's the fact that he thought it was prudent to give multi year extensions to the likes of Erskine and Sloan, but allows Jurcina to sign with NYI for a mere $1 million that has me scratching my head (yet again)

You do realize that Jurcina is very low on the Islanders depth chart and is only playing because of injuries there? Signing Jurcina to be then 7th or 8th D-man for $1M would have been a giant waste of money. Save that cap space to be used in acquiring players closer to the trade deadline.

Taking the rant in a different direction, remind me again why it was a good idea to sign an older, injury prone defensman who is terrible on the PK to a two-year extension when he had a year left on his current contract?

I assume you're referring to Poti. That one baffles me too. I think GMGM is the only one who thought there would be any sort of bidding war for Tom Poti after this season. The other places he played (Edm, NYR, NYI) were more than happy to be rid of him.

I for one was looking forward to having him off the books so they could upgrade at the position. So much for that...

Because Poti has been one of the better defensemen in the NHL at even strength the past 2 years(look it up). He was also great in the playoffs last year. Most of the time spent in an NHL game is at even strength. So you do know that how a player plays at even strength is quite important.

A little self promotion, but this morning on Japers' Rink Radio, www.blogtalkradio.com/japersrinkradio we had Alan May on for a full hour. We chatted with him about the team and also got some great stories from his playing days, including about a fight filled game between the Caps and Flyers from February 1991, the 1990 team that made the Conference Finals and about Dino Ciccarelli, his former roommate who is being inducted into the hall of fame in a few weeks.

I have no issue yet with GMGM staying quiet...the defensement signed this offseason were way over paid. Lots of teams are sruggling with the Cap and I think GMGM will make a move in the next few weeks. If we have Erskine and Sloan in the playoffs...then I will be upset...people need to not over react every time things go a little wrong. Maybe this will be a good opportunity for Carlson to step up and show some more rsponsibility.

We should just throw in the towel now....season is over for us. Forget choking in the playoffs....we won't even make the playoffs.

So what? I'd rather us have these injury issues now than at the end of the season. Besides, all minor league defensemen do well when they're first called up. Helmer, Collins, Alzner all did well in their first few games with us. Even Sloan did well a couple of years ago when he first was called up!

I remember seeing the Caps shut out the Habs two years ago with Lepisto, Alzner, Sloan, Helmer, Jurcina, and Morrisonn.

We encourage users to analyze, comment on and even challenge washingtonpost.com's articles, blogs, reviews and multimedia features.

User reviews and comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions.